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Map Courtesy CIA World Factbook

Japan (literally "the origin of the sun" or less literally "Land of the Rising Sun" ) is an island country east of the Asian continent on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean. It comprises over 6,800 islands having a coastline 100 meters or longer. The largest and main islands are, from north to south, Hokkaidō, Honshū (the largest island), Shikoku, and Kyūshū .


According to traditional Japanese mythology, Japan was founded in the 7th century BC by the ancestral Emperor Jinmu, who started a line of emperors that remains unbroken to this day. Nonetheless, for most of its history, real power was in the hands of the court nobility, the shoguns, the military, or, recently, prime ministers.





The early 20th century saw a brief period of "Taisho democracy" overshadowed by the rise of Japanese expansionism. In 1936, Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact and joined with Germany and Italy to form the axis alliance. In 1937, Japan invaded Manchuria which led to the the second Sino-Japanese War (1937). In 1941, Japan attacked the United States naval base in Pearl Harbor, bringing America into World War II. After a long campaign in the Pacific Ocean, Japan lost its initial territorial gains, and the United States moved into range to begin strategic bombing of Tokyo, Osaka and other major cities as well as atomic bombing at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan eventually agreed to an unconditional surrender to the Allies on August 15, 1945 (V-J Day).

Official American occupation lasted until 1952, although U.S. forces still retain important bases in Japan, especially in Okinawa. Japan adopted a new constitution, establishing the country as a pacifist democratic nation, in 1947 under the occupation authority. After occupation, under a program of aggressive industrial development, protectionism, and deferral of strategic defense to the United States, Japan's gross national product rose to build one of the largest economies in the world. Despite a major stock market crash in 1990, from which the country has not fully recovered, Japan remains a global economic power and has recently begun to re-emerge as a strategic power, lending non-combat support to the Gulf War, the UN efforts to rebuild Cambodia, and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Japan".